The Eclipse-LAMS ToolBuilder Plug-In

The Eclipse-LAMS ToolBuilder Plug-In is a handy tool for developers wishing to create or modify LAMS tools. It works as a plug-in extension to the Eclipse integrated development environment so that once you install the plug-in you will be able to create new LAMS tool projects within Eclipse. The idea behind the ToolBuilder is to provide developers with the basis of a LAMS tool so that they can focus on their tool's business logic instead of wasting time trying to get the tool to work. The new tool projects created contain all the necessary hooks and calls to the LAMS core code, they will compile and run immediately after creation.

How it Works

The ToolBuilder works by translating files from selected templates using the meta-data that entered in the project wizard. The files are carefully translated so the new tool will be unique and follow the guildelines outlined in the LAMS Tool Contract.The ToolBuilder is designed so the new tools will will run alonside the other tools in your LAMS environment as soon as they are created. At first, the tool will work as a copy of the tool template that is chosen, so all you will need to add your own functionalities to the tool to make it your own.

The templates chosen for the ToolBuilder were chosen both for their simplicity and for their well-structured code. Keeping the tool templates simple will make the learning process quicker for creating new tools. At present the following tools are available as templates:

Forum

Notebook

Noticeboard

Share Resources

Eclipse Workspace Requirements

Tool templates are taken from the Eclipse workspace, you will need at least one of these projects in the workspace along with the LAMS core projects for the Toolbuilder to work.

Configure your cvs client as follows to download the LAMS tools:

access method: pserveruser

name: anonymous

server name: lamscvs.melcoe.mq.edu.au

location: /usr/local/cvsroot

The following tool projects are required in your Eclipse workspace for the ToolBuilder to run. You must also have at least one of the templates listed in the above section in your workspace so the ToolBuilder has something to copy from.

lams_admin

lams_build

lams_central

lams_common

lams_contentrepository

lams_learning

lams_monitoring

lams_tool_deploy

lams_www

Download and Installation

There are two ways to install the LAMS ToolBuilder into Eclipse:

Download using Eclpse's inbuild plug-in download manager. NOT YET AVAILABLE

Download from the LAMS downloads page, then manually copy the jar into the Eclipse plugin directory

To use the second method, please follow these steps.

Download the org.lams.toolbuilder_1.0.x.jar.

If Eclipse is running, shut it down.

Copy org.lams.toolbuilder_1.0.0.jar to the eclipse/plugins directory of your Eclipse installation.

Restart Eclipse. The tool should now appear in the list of available plugins.

How to use it

Using the ToolBuilder is quite simple. The following shows the normal steps behind creating a new LAMS tool project using the ToolBuilder

In Eclipse goto file -> new -> project, the following screen should appear

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2. Open the 'LAMS/RAMS' folder in the New Project Wizard, select 'LAMS/RAMS Tool Project' and click 'next'.
3. The next screen should appear, you are now in the Toolbuilder wizard.
4. Select the template you wish to make your new LAMS tool from and click the 'next' button.

Click to enlarge

5. Now you are in the project meta-data page, you need to enter the some information about your new tool.

6. Enter the new project name, this will be the name of the folder that contains the LAMS tool project in eclipse, for example lams_tool_forum
7. Enter the tool signature, the tool signature should follow the form prescribed here.
8. Enter your tool name, this will be used to translate the files in your chosen template.
9. Enter the vendor, this can be the organisation you work for or your name, or whatever you choose to call it.
10. Enter the tool version, this is an 8-digit number representing the date of tool creation in the form YYYYMMDD
11. Enter the minimum LAMS server version, if your tool requires a certain version of LAMS, be sure to enter it here.
12. Select the type of tool you wish to make, LAMS or RAMS.
13. If you don't want the tool to be displayed as a standalone tool in author or learner, select no in the 'Make Tool Visible' box.
14. Clicking 'finish' will start the project creation process, this should take a few moments to finish.

Deploying the New Tool

Once you have created your new tool, it should be able to compile and run like all the other tools. First, you should build the LAMS core projects before deploying the new tool.

Run the following ant tasks from the lams_build/build.xml file. Alternatively you can simply rum the 'lams-cruise' task.

rebuild-db

assemble-ear

deploy-ear

copy-files

Once you have successfully deployed the LAMS core code, you can then run the 'deploy' task from your new tool's build.xml file